Skip to main content

Android 11 public beta will debut during livestream, Google says

Google plans to announce the public beta for the upcoming Android 11 during a live stream on June 3. 

Android’s latest public beta was supposed to debut at the Google I/O conference on May 12-14, but the coronavirus pandemic forced that event to be canceled. The announcement will instead take place on YouTube beginning at 8 a.m. PT, according to a video spotted by Android Police. 

The event will include a Q&A portion where people can tweet their Android 11 questions to @AndroidDev using the hashtag #AskAndroid. Android Vice President Dave Burke and Senior Director of Product Management Stephanie Cuthbertson will be on deck to answer those questions. 

Join us for #Android11: The Beta Launch Show!

The beta release on June 3 will include the final SDK and NDK application programming interfaces for developers and open up Google Play publishing for apps targeting Android 11.

Google plans to release beta 2 in July and beta 3 in August, which will include candidate builds for final testing.

Android 11 will include a slew of new features.

One of them is a new “one-time permission,” feature which would be available for apps that only need to access specific data, such as location, one time. 

Android 11 could also possibly have the Scoped Storage feature. The feature would limit the access that apps have to the rest of your device for improved security and better storage management.

Another feature we can expect — initially discovered by XDA Developers — is a new gesture code-named ‘Columbus’ that can be triggered by double-tapping the back of Google Pixel phones. The gesture allows users to easily perform actions such as launching the camera or prompting the Google Assistant by merely tapping the back of their phone twice.

Android 11 most likely won’t be available to most phones until 2021. However, there is also a chance some new Android phones released later on this year will come with Android 11 already installed. 

Editors' Recommendations

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Google is making it easier for you to find and download Android apps
Google Play on the Oppo Find N2.

Google announced a wide range of features for Android phones at the I/O 2024 developers conference earlier today. However, the event was not all about user-facing changes. The company also revealed a handful of new tricks for developers to showcase their apps effectively while maintaining a vigilant eye on safety.

Among the most important changes -- one that is also going to make life easier for users - is support for more payment options. The most notable of these is support for installment subscriptions, which has already yielded positive results for developers in the early access phase.

Read more
Every Android tablet we’re expecting in 2024
The home screen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra.

It’s an exciting time for Android tablets. Into the vacuum left in 2023 by Apple’s first-ever dearth of new iPads stepped two new contenders offering distinct takes on what a tablet should be, while Samsung’s venerable Tab S9 lineup raised the bar by cementing the position of its largest tablet and bringing AMOLED screens to the entire family.

There’s no reason to believe that this year will be any less interesting as Samsung continues to up its game while Google and OnePlus try to refine their initial first-generation efforts into more mature products.

Read more
Android 15 might add a new way to charge your gadgets
The Android 15 logo on a smartphone.

Wireless charging has been a fringe feature for over a decade, despite Apple's push into the ecosystem with the iPhone X and its later adoption of MagSafe. It has been limited to flagship phones, save for a few exceptions, mostly due to the painfully slow charging speeds. But with Android 15, Google now seems to offer phone makers additional reasons to adopt wireless charging even without dedicated hardware.

Instead of relying on a dedicated charging coil, Android 15 could enable wireless charging on phones with Near Field Communications (or NFC) tech. Android Authority dug up instances from the source code of Android 15's first user beta, which arrived last week, that suggests the implementation.
Not new, but definitely noteworthy
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Tushar Mehta / Digital Trends

Read more